Shofar Day 8 Dear Believers In Thyatira
Revelation 2:18-25
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
1 Peter 2:11-12
Ephesians 6:10-13
Deuteronomy 31:1-6
As we dive into the Shofar call to the church of Thyatira, we see Jesus refer to Himself as the “Son of God whose eyes are like a fiery flame and whose feet are like fine brass.” (Revelation 2:18) He focuses deep into our souls like a refining fire, purifying our hearts and cultivating holiness in us. Like fine brass, He is purifying us to reveal His reflection in us.
The Shofar call to this particular church was a call to forsake the way of Jezebel, abandon idolatry, and pursue sexual purity. (Revelation 2:18-25)
Jezebel was the wife of Israel’s king Ahab, who lived and ruled centuries before the apostle John’s vision of Revelation. Ahab’s choice to take a queen from Sidon was in defiance of God’s instructions, and Jezebel wasted no time influencing Ahab and all of Israel to worship false gods. (Deuteronomy 7:1-6; 1 Kings 16:29-34) This worship included widespread prostitution, sorcery, and child sacrifice, all practices that would destroy God’s beloved children. To call His people back to Him, God sent the prophet Elijah.
To call His people in Thyatira back to Him, God sent a vision to the apostle John. For Thyatira, this calling was very difficult. Thyatira was a wealthy town where business owners relied on false deities and unholy living in pursuit of success. Following the call of Jesus made His people stand out and would likely lead to financial loss.
We, too, stand out if we follow Jesus with devotion. Our idols may look different from ancient Israel’s, but their pull on our hearts is no less powerful. Today, as in the days of ancient Israel, one fruit of idolatry is sexual immorality.
Sisters, sex is God’s gift, meant to be a physical expression of a whole-life commitment. When these elements are separated, we sacrifice the Imago Dei of another human on the altar of briefly appeasing an appetite: another person created in the image of God becomes an object we use to scratch an itch. Destruction inevitably follows.
In a culture obsessed with sex, the call to sexual integrity is hard. In fact, we cannot heed a calling we cannot first understand or hear. Without pulling down the idols in our hearts and committing to following Jesus alone, we simply cannot heed the call to sexual purity. Pursuit of sexual purity is developed through a passionate love for Jesus.
In order to know Jesus’ voice and His call, we must first realize we are sinners Christ died to redeem. We come to know Him by placing our trust in Him, allowing Him to wash us clean, and build our true identities. Only then will we be able to heed the call to honor God in our sexual choices, and to cherish our bodies as the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
Jesus wants our lives to be full of His power, blessings, and joy. Those things only come if we live His way and not our own. Because we reap what we sow, if we give in to fleshly temptations we will reap fleshly rewards. However, if we do the hard thing and walk in purity, we will reap joyful blessings we can’t even begin to imagine.
This is often easier said than done due to the spiritual warfare Satan wages against us. (Ephesians 6:12) He wants to tempt us because he knows this calling is sacred. Our Papa God created us to have a deep covenant relationship with Him and to reflect Him to others. Jesus didn’t say following Him would be easy, but He did promise to always be near, helping us. For this, He graciously gave us His armor for the battle.
I watched a friend of mine live out this call to purity beautifully. She remained committed to sexual integrity until her wedding day, and while she struggled at times and people made fun of her choice, she kept her promise to God.
I, meanwhile, have struggled in this area my entire life. I had not prioritized sexual purity prior to my marriage to a non-believer, and my marriage was full of heartache. We divorced, and the depression and anxiety I carried from that time was very hard to overcome. After my divorce, I was in an unhealthy relationship, which included sexual impurity, and I developed HPV as a result. Like the Israelites, like the community in Thyatira, my choices were destroying my life.
When I was convicted of my sins and repented, I eventually turned it all over to my Papa and asked Him to help me live His way instead. I started really spending time with Him and dug deeply into my Bible to get to know Him more. I completely fell in love with Him and began to tear down the idols in my heart.
God healed me of the HPV, and I’m now in a healthy relationship, with God in the center. Yes, we have our challenges. We fight the fleshly battle all the time. But my boyfriend consistently points me to Jesus, and we pray together in a way unlike anything I’ve experienced before.
I highly encourage you to heed Jesus’ calling to keep Him on the throne of your heart, and out of your love for Him and His people, pursue sexual integrity; it truly is so worth it!
“Let anyone who has ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!”
(Revelation 2:29)
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